Erie region's grape crop could set records

On Oct. 23, Kathy Mobilia, co-owner of Mobilia Fruit Farm in North East Township, shows off several bunches of Chambourlin wine grapes that she expects will be picked Oct. 24. Mobilia, 60, said that Mobilia's 150 acres of wine and factory grapes produced a much higher yield than normal this year. And the grapes' sugar content is high enough that this week's rains won't significantly affect the quality of the grapes. Mobilia expects all her farm's grapes to be picked by the end of the week. CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS

MORE WINE: To take tours of local wineries, read more wine-related stories, see photos and videos related to northwest Pennsylvania wine, click here.

There are still grapes to be picked and the uncertainty of fall weather could make things interesting.

But Rich Erdle, director of member relations at the National Grape Cooperative, owner of Welch Foods Inc., said he can say with some certainty that this year's crop is a record breaker.

With about two weeks left in the harvest season, however, there's still a chance Mother Nature could put a damper on what looks like a comeback year for the region's grape growers.

This year's abundant grape harvest comes as welcome news after disastrous crops in 2011 and 2012.

Kathy Mobilia, co-owner of Mobilia Fruit Farm in North East Township, said she and her husband, Nick Mobilia, harvested between nine and 10 tons of high-quality grapes per acre from their Concord vineyards.

Like other grape growers in the region, the Mobilias shook tons of grapes off their vines this summer to ensure the crop wasn't so large that it would never ripen.

"It paid off for us," Mobilia said, explaining that their farm finished harvesting juice grapes about two weeks ago, leaving only a few wine grapes to harvest by hand.

Like Erdle, Andy Muza, a fruit crop agent with Erie County Cooperative Extension, describes this year's crop as a big one.

Muza, however, said he's concerned about growers who are still waiting for their grapes to sweeten.

Biology students who have studied the basics of photosynthesis will understand why.

Plants depend on sunlight shining on green leaves to bolster the sugar content of the grapes.

And as Muza explains it, there's cloudy, rainy weather in the forecast and the grape leaves in local vineyards are mostly in poor shape.

"If we get wet, heavy snow and they've got a heavy crop, that could be a real problem," Muza said. "And if we get a freeze and they lose all their leaves, there's not going to be much chance for more sugar to develop."

Erdle sees that possibility, but he doesn't expect it to happen.

Everything, of course, hinges on the weather.

"We have about two weeks to go and I don't see any freezing temperatures through next Tuesday," Erdle said. "I would guess at this very moment we are in pretty good shape. It's very likely this will be a record yield."

That doesn't mean that some growers won't come up short in the 30,000-acre Lake Erie grape belt.

"We have a few growers that are struggling," Erdle said. "There may be a few acres that don't get picked, but it's a very small percentage."

For most growers, this figures to be a profitable year, said Kevin Martin, extension educator with the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program in Portland, N.Y.

At $260 to $275 a ton, Concord grape prices are down $20 to $30 a ton from 2012 prices, Martin said.

The big difference, though, is that most farmers have far more grapes to sell this year.

In an area that typically averages 5.5 tons of grapes per acre, many local growers are harvesting crops of 7 to 9 tons. A few report harvests up to 12 tons per acre, Martin said.

"It's the first large crop we've had in a long time," he said. "It's certainly going to be close to the record books in terms of both size and quality."